SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Computer security experts on Monday warned of a new virus that deletes files while masquerading as a program that will allow people to vote on whether the United States should go to war over the Sept. 11 hijacker attacks.
The ``Vote Virus'', which so far is not wide spread, circulates via e-mail to users of Microsoft Corp.'s (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) Outlook e-mail program, said Simon Perry, vice president of security solutions at Computer Associates International Inc. (NYSE:CA - news)
The virus, punctuated by strange grammar and a mix of lower- and upper-case letters, appears with the subject line: ''Peace between America and Islam!'' and the body of the e-mail reads: ``Hi. Is it a war against America or Islam!? Let's vote to live in peace!'' Perry and other experts said.
When the attachment entitled ``WTC.exe'' is opened, the virus tries to delete all the files on the computer's hard drive and sends copies of the e-mail to every address listed in the computer's address book, he said.
The virus also defaces any Web pages that are hosted by an infected computer to read: ``America ... few days will show you what we can do!!! It's our turn ))) ZaCker is so sorry for you,'' according to Perry.
In addition the virus, which is a worm because of its self-propagation capabilities, deletes the Windows directory files, tries to download a ``backdoor'' on the computer and unsuccessfully attempts to reformat the system, said Vincent Gullotto, senior research director of Network Associates Inc.'s (Nasdaq:NETA - news) Antivirus Response Team. A ``backdoor'' would enable someone to get remote access to the computer without permission.
The virus also can delete antivirus software on the computer, according to Vincent Weafer, director of Symantec Corp.'s (Nasdaq:SYMC - news) Antivirus Research Center. |
